SUPPORTERS of a jailed asylum seeker have launched a nationwide campaign to stop him being deported.

When Tayyip Oruc, a Kurdish refugee who fled the Turkish regime, was arrested on Monday, his supporters staged a protest outside Middlesbrough police station.

Although Mr Oruc's application for asylum had been rejected by the Home Office, he had previously been allowed to remain in Middlesbrough.

Supporters claim that his arrest, when he arrived to make his regular report to the police station, was unexpected.

Since the arrest, the North of England Refugee Service, which is championing his cause, has learned of plans to deport him next Tuesday.

It has drafted a letter to Barbara Roche MP, the Immigration Minister, in a bid to block the move.

Pete Widlinski, a team leader of the Middlesbrough service, said: "E-mails have been sent to 2,000 people through the National Coalition of Anti Deportation Campaigns asking them to send copies of the letter to Barbara Roche.

"The Kurdish Human Rights Project is taking up the case and we are writing to ten or 12 MPs who have supported Tayyip in the past to ask for their help.

"The Northern TUC and the GMB unions are also supporting him, as is the Greater Manchester Immigration Aid Unit."

Mr Widlinski claims that if he is sent back to Turkey, which he left in 1998, Mr Oruc's life will be in danger.

Last December, his mother and father, who still live there, were beaten with batons by soldiers, and Mr Oruc's brother is in prison.

Following an approach from the Refugee Service, the solicitors Doberman Horsman have agreed to argue for his right to asylum under the Human Rights Act.

Mr Widlinksi, who has visited Mr Oruc at Stockton's Holme House Prison, said: "He is obviously quite distressed by the whole thing.